British Birds the Strange Case of the Whistling Oofoo

British Birds Established 1907; incorporating 'The Zoologist', established 1843 The strange case of the Whistling Oofoo What are runt eggs? Humphrey Q. P. Crick Every now and then, birdwatchers come across strange miniature eggs in bird nests. Often perfect replicas of normal eggs, these 'runt', 'dwarf, 'cock', 'witch' or 'wind' eggs (Romanoff & Romanoff 1949) have attracted attention and have been regarded with some superstition. In the earlier part of this century and before egg-collecting was made illegal, schoolboy egg-collectors recorded these eggs as coming from strange species such as the 'Whistling Oofoo' (B. Harrup in lift.). Just what are these eggs, and why do they occur? A Dictionary of Birds (Campbell & Lack 1985) suggests that runt eggs are the last laid in a clutch and occur because the female becomes exhausted. At Nor wegian seabird colonies where the eggs of Herring Larus argentatus and Great Black-backed Gulls L. marinus are collected for human consumption, runt eggs are thought to be laid by females exhausted from re-laying after repeated robbery (R. T. Barrett in litt.). It is, however, quite normal for eggs to vary in size and shape in relation to such factors as position in the laying sequence, age of the female, time through the breeding season, and the weamer, and it may be that runts are simply part of the normal continuum of egg-size variation. [Brit. Birds 88: 169-180, April 1995] 169 170 What are runt eggs? In the case of domestic poultry, it has been suggested that runt eggs are abnormal accidents, and that they are laid by active hens and not by immature birds (Pearl & Curtis 1916, cited in Koenig 1980b), although Romanoff & Romanoff (1949) contradicted this by stating that they are laid more often by immatures than by adults. Harrison (1951) reported that runt eggs are 'the result of egg formation around a foreign body of some kind, such as a small blood clot, or a piece of inspissated albumen', but he did not consider the ecological circumstances in which such eggs are produced. New records of runt eggs In 1989, I was sent a photograph of the runt egg of a Blackbird Turdus merula by P. F. Hollins, a participant in the BTO's Nest Record Scheme, who was greatly puzzled by the egg. Following publication of this photograph, together with a brief note and a request for further observations (Crick 1989), I received a considerable number of replies. Some of these contained detailed records, and they are briefly reviewed below in relation to previously published information, in an attempt to shed more light on the phenomenon of the 'Whistling Oofoo'. A total of 87 instances of runt eggs was recorded, involving 44 species, ranging from divers Gavia to buntings Emberiza (table 1). They were fairly likely to occur in reduced or incomplete clutches (22% of records: for Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata, Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica, Blackbird, Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus, Blue Tit Parus caeruleus, Great Tit P. major, Carrion Crow Corvus corone and Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhuh). In the majority of cases, only one runt egg was found in a clutch of otherwise normal eggs. Measurements of runt eggs are given in table 2, and can be compared with similar measurements from the literature shown in table 3. (Note that, throughout this paper, 'size' is used to indicate relative volume, calculated from length X breadth X breadth.) Koenig (1980a) found that runt eggs could be recognised as those which were less than 75% of the size of the rest of the eggs in the clutch. In both tables, all runt eggs are less than 75% of the average egg size for each species, and ranged from 12% to 71% of the normal. From the information in tables 2 & 3 combined, the average runt egg reported among non-passerines was 30% of normal volume (n = 12) and for passerines was 38% of the normal (n = 26), but the difference was not statisti cally significant.1 When the relative volume of a runt egg (the average for each species) was plotted against the volume of a normal egg, however, a significant relationship was found, species with larger eggs tending to produce relatively smaller runt eggs.2 Since non-passerines are usually larger than passerines, they will tend to lay relatively smaller runt eggs. Runt eggs usually lack a full yolk (Koenig 1980a; M'Williams 1927), although 65% contain a particle of yolk that is probably the nucleus around which the egg forms (Romanoff & Romanoff 1949). Of the previously unpublished records (table 1), none was reported as having a yolk, while a definite lack of yolk was reported for runt eggs of Lesser Black-backed Gull Lams fuscus, Barn Swallow, 1 Superscript numbers 1, 2 and 3 refer to results of statistical tests, which are shown in the Appendix on page 180. British Birds, vol. 88, no. 4, April 1995 171 Hedge Accentor Prunella modularis, Blackbird and Reed Warbler. Hatchability of small eggs is often lower than that of bigger eggs (Rofstad & Sandvik 1985), and, as might be expected from a lack of yolk, none of the runt eggs in table 1 was reported to have hatched. Table 1. Previously unpublished records of runt eggs. The composition of each clutch, where known, is given as number of runts + number of normal eggs. No. of Clutch composition Species records (where known) Red-throated Diver Gavia stellata 1 Northern Gannet Mows bassanus 1 Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis 1 Mute Swan Cygnus olor 2 1 + 7,1 + 8 Canada Goose Branta canadensis 1 1+5 Common Eider Somateria mollissima 1 1+4 Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus 1 Common Buzzard Buteo buteo 2 1 + 1,1+2 Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus 1 1+9 Moorhen Gallinula chloropus 2 Common Coot Fulica atra 2 1 + 5 Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus 4 1+2,1+3,1+2,2 + 2 Great Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula 1 1+3 Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus 3 1+4,1 + 1,1+3 Eurasian Curlew Numenius arquata 2 1+0,1+4 Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia 1 Black-headed Gull Larus ridibundus 1 1 + 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull L fuscus 1 2+1 Herring Gull L argentatus 3 Great Black-backed Gull L marinus 3 1+3,1+2 Common Tern Sterna hirundo 2 Razorbill Aha torda 1 Sky Lark Alauda arvensis 1 Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica 2 1 + 1,1+4 Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava 1 1+4 Grey Wagtail M. cinerea 2 Pied Wagtail M. alba 1 1+4 Dipper Cinclus cinclus 2 1+4 Hedge Accentor Prunella modularis 1 Robin Erithacus rubecula 1 Whinchat Saxicola rubetra 1 2 + 3 Blackbird Turdus merula 9 1 + 2,1 + 3 (three), 1 + 4 (two) Song Thrush T.philomelos 2 1 + 4 (two) Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus 2 1 + 2,1 + 0 Pied Flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca 2 Blue Tit Parus caeruleus 12 1+3,1+4,1+5,1+7,1+8, 1+9,1 + 13,2 + 7,2 + 8,6 + 0, 7 + 0 Great Tit P. major 1 1+3 Magpie Pica pica 1 Rook Corvus frugilegus 1 1+3 Carrion Crow C. corone 3 1 + 3,2 + 0 (two) 'Hooded' Crow C. c. comix 1 Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris 1 Linnet Carduelis cannabina 1 1+3 Bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula 1 1 + 1 Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus 1 1+3 172 What are runt eggs? The shape and colour of runt eggs are usually normal (Romanoff & Romanoff 1949), although some may be darker in colour (M'Williams 1927). For the eggs in table 1, normal coloration was recorded for one Common Coot Fulica atra, Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus, one Eurasian Curlew, one Song Thrash Turdus phibmelos, one Hedge Accentor, three Blackbirds, Blue Tit and Linnet Carduelis cannabina. Abnormal coloration was recorded for Red-throated Diver Gavia stellata (darker), Black-headed Gull Lams ridibundus (grey), one Northern Lapwing Vanellus vanellus (brown), one Eurasian Curlew (pale green) and one Blue Tit (no coloration). Shape was usually undescribed, except for the following abnormalities: 'cylindrical (one Common Buzzard Buteo buteo, Common Greenshank Tringa nebularia, Razorbill Alca torda, one Blackbird); 'elongate' (Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis), with one of the runt eggs of Barn Swallow looking like the fusion of two eggs; and 'rounded' (one Oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus, Black-headed Gull). One Blue Tit clutch contained eggs which were 'misshapen with knobbly protuberances'. Abnormalities in shape are less common than runt eggs (Romanoff & Romanoff 1949). The rates at which runt eggs occur have rarely been documented in the field, but available information is summarised in table 4. Rates vary from one in every 5,000 eggs (gulls) to nearly one in 25 (Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formi- civorus). The latter is unusually high and has been investigated in detail by Koenig (1980a,b). The average rate of occurrence among non-passerines, excluding Acorn Woodpecker, is 35 in 10,000 eggs (n = 7 species) and for passerines is 16 in 10,000 (n = 6 species). The samples were too small to detect any statistically significant differences3, but more than half of the non-passerine rates were greater than all but one of the passerine rates. Table 2, Previously unpublished measurements of runt eggs compared with measure ments of normal eggs. Normal-egg measurements are from Harrison (1975). Measurements in parentheses are made by the author from photographs, and are used only to calculate relative size of the runt egg compared with normal egg(s) in the same photograph; they are not measurements of real eggs. Relative size of runt egg is calculated using Preston's (1974) equation of (length X breadth X breadth of runt)/(length X breadth X breadth of normal egg).

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